Chapter 8 - THE WOMAN BEHIND THE POWER CUT
Security lights flickered on.
The hallway was empty.
But the office door stood open.
My laptop was gone.
So was the black drive.
Evelyn grabbed my arm.
“We leave now.”
We moved through the emergency stairwell.
Outside, police cars were already arriving.
A security officer had found the company director unconscious in a conference room.
Someone had attacked him.
He survived.
But before the ambulance left, he gave investigators one piece of information.
He had seen Marianne enter the building.
That was enough.
Within hours, the police obtained a warrant.
Marianne's house was searched.
They found boxes of financial records.
Hard drives.
Forged documents.
And photographs of me.
Dozens of them.
My daily schedule.
My office.
My apartment.
Even photographs taken outside my bedroom window.
I felt sick.
“This wasn't just financial,” I whispered.
Evelyn nodded.
“She was monitoring you.”
Then investigators found something worse.
A file titled:
FINAL TRANSFER.
Inside was a detailed plan.
My shares were supposed to be transferred into a holding company within forty-eight hours.
And the final step was horrifying.
The document stated that I would be declared mentally incompetent following a “stress-related breakdown.”
The plan included witnesses.
Medical evaluations.
Statements from Grant.
Even recordings designed to make me appear unstable.
I stared at the pages.
“They were going to make everyone believe I was crazy.”
“Yes.”
“And Grant?”
Evelyn looked at the final page.
His signature was there.
I felt nothing.
No anger.
Just emptiness.
Then the police called.
Marianne had been arrested.
But she refused to speak.
Instead, she requested one thing.
To see me.
I went.
She sat behind the glass, no longer wearing designer clothes.
“You think you've won.”
I looked at her.
“No.”
She smiled.
“You haven't.”
“Why?”
“Because Grant knows where the original trust documents are.”
My heart stopped.
“Where?”
She leaned toward the glass.
“Ask him.”
Then she smiled.
“Before he disappears.”
I rushed outside.
Grant's phone was disconnected.
His house was empty.
His car was gone.
May you like
And on the kitchen counter was one handwritten note.
I'm sorry. There is something I have to fix before it's too late.
